It was the darling of preppy young Ralph Lauren-clad women growing up in the '80s. A must-have accessory of up and coming
yuppie trendsetters, especially the white on white Karmann edition. Back then it was dubbed Rabbit Cabriolet, before transforming into Golf Cabriolet until it was discontinued in 2003, and now it's back.

It's back in Europe anyway, with no word of whether the all-new 2012 Golf Cabriolet will find its way across the Atlantic to our shores anytime soon. Would there be a welcoming new generation of preppy young women ready to drop their savings (or their dear old dad's savings) on one if it did show up? Argyle sweater vests are back, if that's any indication.

The Golf Cabriolet would be positioned below both the recently refreshed Eos hardtop convertible and the completely revised 2012 New Beetle Convertible as Volkswagen's entry-level convertible, and likely be priced below the $30,000 barrier.

The car introduced
ahead of Geneva this week utilizes a conventional fabric roof. A nicely finished insulated top that Volkswagen says is "one of the quietest convertibles today," with an innovative mechanism dubbed electro-hydraulic drive that opens or closes in a mere 9.5 seconds, and the car can be rolling up to 30 km/h (18.6 mph) when doing so. The cloth top cuts costs, increases trunk space and looks better than a retractable hardtop likely would in this application, and unlike the old Golf Cabrio's bundle of fabric riding high and baby buggy-like on the rear deck this one folds into a neatly sealed-off tonneau without the hassle of awkward and time-consuming snaps.

Much of the Golf Cabriolet's sheetmetal is unique, with greater rake to the A-pillar, a lower profile roofline and a completely revised rear section. The taillights are LEDs and HID headlamps are available.

VW offers a total of six engines globally, some gasoline
and others diesel plus five are available with the German automaker's advanced DSG dual-clutch sequential manual transmission and three boasting BlueMotion eco-friendly technology. We would likely get the same gasoline engine range offered with the regular Golf.

Likewise, the Golf Cabriolet gets all of the same safety equipment as the regular Golf, such as front airbags, side head/thorax airbags, a knee airbag for the driver, and ESP, plus the Cabriolet gets the added security of an automatically deploying rollover bar.

Volkswagen didn't go into detail about standard and optional equipment, but rather stated, "Essentially, all of the features offered in the classic, hard top Golf are also available in the new Golf Cabriolet. The only feature that will definitely not be offered is a sunroof." Cute.